When Donald Trump entered the presidential race in June 2015, I decided to give him a look. After I paid close attention, however, he completely lost me.

He lost me because his statements were erratic, contradictory, and untrustworthy, and many of his positions were actually very liberal. What troubled me the most was his well-known playboy lifestyle – exemplified by widely circulated nude pictures of Melania Trump taken aboard his plane when they were dating, his “unrepentant” adultery in two previous marriages, and his years of openly bragged-about womanizing – behavior not only disturbing to decent Americans, but degrading to all women.

Also deeply troubling are his pro-abortion views (including support for Planned Parenthood), advocacy of universal government healthcare, bullying of opposing candidates, racially-tinged (and simplistic) attitudes, making fun of the disabled, and routine pathological lying.

Now that he is the “presumptive GOP nominee,” his rhetoric and behavior have come increasingly under fire from the media and voters. His bigoted statements about a “Mexican judge,” his support for gun control, his blatant self-promotion in everything he does, his thumbing his nose at the Republican Party (saying he can “go it alone” without the party’s help after using the party to get votes in the first place), and his overall juvenile and erratic behavior make it readily apparent that this former reality TV star is wholly unfit to be President of the United States and the leader of the free world.

Now, I’m certainly not advocating a Hillary Clinton presidency – she would bring her own unprecedented corruption and extreme ideology to the White House – but I do want to make voters aware that we have a very plausible alternative route. We don’t have to put Trump or Hillary in the Oval Office.

The path to “dump Trump”

As a Republican national delegate, I, along with the other 2,471 GOP delegates, will convene in Cleveland this July for the Republican National Convention. While most observers and the media assume that Donald Trump will be anointed the GOP nominee by the convention, that presumed outcome is becoming increasingly uncertain, as his unpopularity grows and his poll numbers continue to slide. He has virtually no campaign funds and only a fly-by-night organization. His naïve plan to ignore the party’s base while enlisting Democrats and independents to vote for him – through over-reliance on Tweets and free media – will never work. Trump has almost zero chance of beating Hillary Clinton in November.

There is hope, however.

I belong to a rapidly growing GOP delegate movement called Free the Delegates, which is gaining momentum. Because of the confusion and contradiction about what delegates can and can’t do, allow me a few minutes to piece things together for you. It’s actually pretty simple, once you sort through the RNC rules enough to understand the subject.

The premise of the Free the Delegate movement is that GOP delegates are not bound to vote for any particular candidate at the convention; they are free to vote their conscience – according to Rules 37 and 38. (Rule 37 has been in place for over 130 years; and Rule 38, known as the “Unit Rule,” expressly guarantees delegates’ right of conscience.) This principle of delegate freedom has been recognized and protected by every GOP convention since the founding of the Republican Party.

The only exception was the 1976 convention, in which RNC rules were changed to bind delegates to Gerald Ford and keep Ronald Reagan from gaining the nomination. This coercive rule was dropped the following convention, in 1980.

As things stand, the only RNC rule that purports to require binding is Rule 16, adopted by RNC leaders in 2013 without ratification by delegates – and this rule has no governing authority over the convention, since it is only among the rules (Rules 13-25) that govern the party between conventions and that automatically expire at each new convention unless readopted. These rules have no application to the “Standing Rules of the Convention” (Rules 26-42) that actually govern the 2016 convention.

False media narrative

Erroneously, it’s being claimed everywhere in the media that in order for delegates to be unbound, they have to change the rules. THIS IS NOT the case, as explained above. The delegates are already unbound. It’s important to note that in order to bind the delegates, on the other hand, the delegates themselves must CHANGE THE RULES to add such language to the Standing Rules of the Convention. This is highly unlikely to happen, in view of the growing “buyer’s remorse” now becoming obvious among convention-goers in recent weeks, as the Trump campaign continues to show itself profoundly inept and unprepared to take on the Democrats.

Because there is so much confusion over the binding of delegates, Free the Delegates is proposing that a “Conscience Clause” be adopted by the Convention Rules Committee to give delegates extra reinforcement in understanding and exercising their rights during the voting. This is not a rule change, per se, but a clarification of existing rules – Rules 37 and 38.

In order for this clause to be adopted, it will need the approval of 57 delegates who sit on the Convention Rules Committee. If it passes this committee, it will then be brought to the full floor for a vote and will need the support of 1,237 delegates to pass. But regardless of whether it passes, delegates are still unbound and free to vote their conscience, per the Unit Rule.

State party rules and state law don’t trump national party rules

Much of the confusion surrounding the Cleveland convention has to do with conflicting state rules and the primacy of national party rules. Historically, any state party rules or state laws that require binding of delegates have been nullified by the courts when they contradict the rules of national political parties. In effect, state party rules cannot “trump” national party rules – the latter always take precedence in a dispute.

Regarding state law, the Supreme Court through several rulings has made clear “state laws that bind delegates to vote for a specific candidate are unconstitutional…. States [cannot] bind delegates to national party conventions to vote according to primary results” (Curly Haugland, Unbound: The Conscience of a Republican Delegate, page 60).

In 1975, the Court ruled in Cousins v. Wigoda that “the States themselves have no constitutionally mandated role in the great task of the selection of the President and Vice-President candidates.”

And further, in October 2007, U.S. District Judge Richard A. Lazzara issued this statement in a case dismissed against the Democratic National Committee: “As the Supreme Court has consistently recognized, national political parties have a constitutionally protected right to manage and conduct their own internal affairs, including the enforcement of delegate selection rules and the decision as to which state delegates it will recognize, under the First Amendment’s right to freedom of association.”

But didn’t Donald win “fair and square”?

The only plausible counter-argument to Free the Delegates is the presumption that “Trump won the nomination fair and square.” This presumption, held by his delegates and supporters, is his main “trump card” going into the convention.

If he won fair and square, he has a compelling claim to the Republican nomination. On the other hand, if he didn’t win fair and square, he has no such claim, and delegates have every right to deny him the nomination.

Here are the known facts –

Unlike all the other candidates, Trump refused to attend two crucial televised debates when only the strongest of the candidates were left standing. By so doing, he made a mockery of the primary process and deprived voters of the chance to see him fully vetted. He arrogantly announced, “We’ve had enough debates” – as though he had taken over the GOP and usurped its rightful role to inform the electorate. RNC chair Reince Priebus should have told him to show up or be stripped of his delegates (or some similar penalty) for so blatantly refusing to play fair.

Unlike all the other candidates (of both parties) going back decades, he has refused to release his federal tax returns so voters could vet him even further. It appears he has something to hide. Again, RNC chair Reince Priebus should have told him he’d be stripped of his delegates (or suffer an equivalent penalty) if he didn’t play fair in something so basic as releasing his taxes.

Unlike any of the other candidates, he relied throughout the primaries on a nonstop barrage of outrageous “dirty tricks” to defame and belittle decent fellow Republicans – damaging not only their reputations, but the credibility of the GOP itself. For thus diverting the vetting process from substance and policy to petty “tabloid”-style politics, he should have been told by RNC chair Reince Priebus to stop subverting the electoral process or he’d be substantially penalized for not playing fair.

Unlike any of the other candidates, he has relied repeatedly on intentional lies, distortions, and emotional manipulation to hide his actual positions and distract from his lack of substance throughout his campaign. For being even more dishonest and fraudulent than Hillary, as some allege, he should be rejected by the convention for proving himself utterly unqualified to lead the party and the nation.

Unlike any of the other candidates, it is obvious that Donald Trump has engaged in a deceptive, hostile takeover of the GOP for his own personal gain. For such duplicity – and the unprecedented threat this unstable, egotistical charlatan poses to our nation’s security and safety, as well as that of the world – he must be stopped at the convention, out of respect for ourselves and fairness to our country. The American people are counting on us as delegates to stand up against such blatantly UNFAIR overreach by such a clever demagogue and the dirty tricksters with whom he has surrounded himself at the core of his campaign.

The above is a reasonable look at Donald’s “trump card” involving fairness. It should be clear to most delegates that he’s the one who’s been unfair this election – not the Republican Party, its candidates, or its delegates as he asserts.

This movement is not a “dirty trick”

I should note that while Trump and his surrogates claim that it is powerful “establishment” leaders, GOP insiders, or even former opposing candidates who are behind the effort to “free the delegates,” the facts don’t support their assertions. Free the Delegates was founded by a delegate who is a humble school teacher in Colorado. It is widely backed by the rank and file of the Republican Party – regular folks who care about the direction of our country and who are exasperated at the prospect of having a President Hillary Clinton, something a Trump nomination will all but guarantee.

A June 21 editorial by the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board (linked above) sums up things succinctly:

“Trump’s campaign is a disaster waiting to happen – unless the party uses the Cleveland convention to avert it. Republican delegates can resign themselves to go down on a sinking ship. Or they can mount a mutiny to install a captain who has the judgment, experience and skills needed to guide the vessel safely home.”

Fellow delegates, the choice is ours.

Stefani Williams is a delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention. You can reach her at stefaniNatDel@gmail.com.

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About arnash

“When you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.” - Mark Twain - Politicians and diapers - change 'em often, for the same reason.
"Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other." Ronald Reagan
"Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views."
William F. Buckley, Jr.
“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.” - Bertrand Russell
The people are the masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it. Abraham Lincoln “Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their
behalf.” - George Orwell
“Satan will use a lake of truth to hide a pint of poison”.